


Longing for Change

by TwilightLegacy13



Category: The Witchlands Series - Susan Dennard
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Modern AU, One Shot, Requested fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:27:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28304541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightLegacy13/pseuds/TwilightLegacy13
Summary: While at a party, Lev and Zander get Safi and Caden to (unwillingly) sing a karaoke song together.  And maybe Caden is a bit oblivious, and maybe Safi missed more than a few signs.
Relationships: Caden Fitz Grieg/Safiya fon Hasstrel
Comments: 5
Kudos: 2





	Longing for Change

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by thenerdandfandoms on Tumblr! The title, as well as all song lyrics in the fic, is from "Shallow" by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
> 
> Content warnings: Language, alcohol use.

Safi’s phone buzzed in her pocket—it had to be Iseult, because everyone else she knew was either at the same party as Safi was or asleep like most people tended to be at midnight. She slipped away from the noisy cluster of people to have at least some semblance of privacy while she read the message.

_How’s it going, Saf?_

  
_A bit boring tbh_  
_I’ll probably come home soon_

_You sound a bit down. Anything wrong?_

Her best friend always seemed to know when she was upset over something, and she loved Iseult for it, but this particular problem wasn’t a simple one. It wasn’t easy to explain that she’d gone to this damn party to spend time with friends who’d barely looked at her the whole time and who kept repeating the same old running joke that wasn’t funny anymore.

It was no secret that Caden flirted with her whenever he was drunk, tired, or bored enough, but he also flirted with any mildly attractive person who happened to be in the vicinity, so he was impossible to take seriously. Not that Safi could blame him for wanting to chat up pretty people—she’d earned too many elegant eye-rolls from Vaness to begrudge him that—but somewhere along the way she’d stopped laughing at all the lazy winks and dumb pickup lines.

 _It shouldn’t matter_ , she told herself for the hundredth time. _So what if he wants to be ridiculous and act like he’s hitting on me at a bar? It’s not like it means anything._

If she was a bit more honest with herself, she might’ve admitted that it was that very carelessness that bothered her. But Safi, though she’d always had a talent for knowing when other people were telling the truth, was so very good at lying to herself.

Still, he hadn’t said a word to her since he teasingly took her arm to escort her into the party and he was now surrounded by Lev and Zander, who had been talking to him in low voices for almost half an hour now. It wouldn’t have been as big of a deal if the four of them hadn’t arrived together, or if Leopold hadn’t gotten tired and left early, or if Caden hadn’t particularly talked to her about this party and how it would be a lot of fun. Now she stood in the corner of the room with no one to talk to except for someone who wasn’t even here, and she was frustrated.

_Caden’s irritating me and Polly’s gone home_  
_There isn’t much to do_

_Aw._  
_Need me to call Caden and yell at him?_

_Haha_  
_No_  
_It’s just something stupid_  
_Thanks though_

_Anytime. What are friends for?_

_Whining about shitty parties apparently_

_Well, that’s only natural._

Someone jostled her elbow and she straightened to her full height, already prepared to give a solid scolding to whoever couldn’t look where they were going for ten seconds. That was yet another problem with parties. She loved socializing, but she _hated_ drunk people.

Before she could begin a lecture, the man gestured across the room to where Caden, Lev, and Zander were beckoning for her to join them. “Your friends are looking for you,” he said. And really, it was about time that they remembered they weren’t the only ones who had come here.

“Thanks.” Safi made her way through all the people to get over to where they stood next to each other like they were glued to each other’s sides. Lev was clearly drunk, and she leaned against Zander with a sloppy grin. She waved at Safi when she was standing directly in front of the two of them.

And Caden. His cheeks were flushed, bringing out the dark glitter in his eyes and making his face appear to glow, but he seemed far more sober than Lev and most of the other people she’d seen here. He smiled at her, and there it was—that smile that always managed to confuse her, because if his flirting bothered her so much, she shouldn’t find his smile so charming. It shouldn’t make her heart skip a beat when she saw it directed at her.

“Yeah?” Safi asked, forcing herself to glance at all three of them instead of the one who had captured her attention. She was still upset at him for ignoring her, and staring at his perfect smile did a poor job of reinforcing that.

“You’ve been kind of in the corner for a while,” Zander pointed out, as if she needed reminding. “Everything okay?”

She exhaled sharply through her nose. “It’s fine. You three were busy and I don’t know everyone here.”

“Aw, come on,” Caden said, sounding almost offended. “You know you could’ve come and joined us. Lev and Zander were just hanging around bothering me anyway.”

Lev hit his arm lightly, a laugh escaping her. “Wouldn’t have needed to if you followed our advice.”

His face reddened more noticeably. Had she seriously made him blush? What had they been advising him to do? “My _point_ is that, Safi, you didn’t have to stand around by yourself.”

“After all the time you’ve spent standing around by yourselves, I’m flattered.” She wished he would tease her instead of being so welcoming. He flustered her far too easily when he wasn’t being intentionally antagonistic.

“Well, good,” Caden replied smoothly. “I’d hate to think I hadn’t flattered you.”

He was really going to do this again?

Before she could come up with a snappy response or change of subject, Lev and Zander exchanged a conspicuous look before Lev grabbed Safi’s arm and Zander took Caden’s. “C’mon,” Lev exclaimed, tugging Safi away from where she stood. “We gotta show you two something.”

“What are you doing?” she sputtered. She could think of a dozen ways to point out something that didn’t involve forcibly dragging people towards it with no warning.

“Just wait and see,” Zander promised. Caden glanced over his shoulder at Safi, blinking in confusion that she shared.

Lev and Zander brought them to a makeshift stage that someone had put together out of wooden crates and cardboard boxes. Two people—Safi thought they were friends of Leopold’s, but she wasn’t sure—stood on top of it singing along to the wordless music of “Under Pressure” that someone was playing from the speakers.

“Was this important?” she asked, turning to Lev. “Watching two strangers make themselves look like idiots while singing karaoke on a cardboard box?”

She giggled. “Oh, you’re the next idiots.”

“Nope.” It wouldn’t be the first time she had sung at a party, but she was secure in the fact that she wasn’t much good at it, and it had always been on her terms. Not anyone else’s.

“Ohh, don’t be like that,” Lev grumbled playfully, giving her a little shove forward even though the song hadn’t finished yet. “It’ll be fun!”

“I doubt that.”

It was difficult to hear everything that was being said, between the noisy crowd around her and the two people singing Queen at the top of their lungs, but it seemed like Caden was having a similar argument with Zander. If these two were so insistent that someone sing, why didn’t they go and do it themselves?

The song ended, and Leopold’s friends hopped down from the pitiful stage among good-natured drunk applause. Before Safi could keep protesting, Zander wrapped his arms around her and picked her up, setting her down on top of the boxes and looking out at the expectant crowd. He did the same to a wide-eyed Caden while Lev darted over to the speakers, fiddling with something on them.

It would have been easy enough to just step down from the crates, but enough people were watching now that it would be more embarrassing to back out than it would be to just get this over with. Caden shot her an apologetic look, and Safi shrugged. It would just be one song, and then he would no doubt go back to infuriating her.

The opening notes of “Shallow” began, and Safi had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. _Goddammit, Lev_. Of course she had to pick one of the most popular karaoke songs she could think of while making sure Safi’s part was difficult as hell to sing along to. Caden, on the other hand, would just have to get through the first verse before all he had to do was harmonize.

With a jolt, she realized that Caden had already begun singing. To her great dismay, she realized that he was good at it—sure, he wasn’t perfect and his voice wobbled a bit at “modern world” in the second line, but his voice suited the words well and he certainly wasn’t bad enough for her to tease. A pity, really.

“I’m falling,” he sang, his hand slipping around Safi’s waist and pulling her closer to him. A few people’s eyes widened as they watched, but Safi was focusing more on the fact that Caden had actually done that than on their reactions. It was another act, of course, another addition to the running joke set into motion by someone who adored putting on a show. _But he’s never done this in front of an audience, and he isn’t letting go_.

She was fucking ridiculous. His arm around her waist was no different from all the times he winked at her or called her darling. It was funny, a game, and the only strange thing about it was Safi treating it like it was anything else. They were friends who liked to tease each other, and things would be a lot less complicated if she played along with the game too.

It was time for her verse, and at this point there was no pretending that she didn’t know the words. So she leaned into Caden’s shoulder, pointedly avoiding Lev’s and Zander’s faces in the crowd, and started to sing. “Tell me something, boy…aren’t you tired trying to fill that void? Or do you need more?” The words came to her easily, if not well, and thankfully the audience was much more accepting of her voice now than they probably would be sober.

It occurred to her how very well she could play this game if she lent an unnecessary emphasis to the words that counted—which, she thought, was exactly what Caden had done when he pulled her close as he said he was falling. It was nothing, a harmless joke. It shouldn’t have made warmth flood through her the way it did.

“In all the good times I find myself longing for change….” Safi looked up at Caden as she sang those lyrics, but maybe she was bad at this game after all. She was supposed to smile and laugh, not blush. She channeled that uncertainty into her voice as she looked out into the crowd and finally sought out the familiar faces as she said that she feared herself.

Lev was grinning and singing along to the chorus, but Zander caught Safi’s gaze and gave her an encouraging nod. She was suddenly glad that Leopold had left early. If he was here, he probably would have made a face and gotten her to laugh during the most important part of the song.

_I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in_  
_I’ll never leave the ground_  
_Crash through the surface, where they can’t hurt us_  
_We’re far from the shallow now_

She was acutely aware of Caden’s hand just above her hip as his voice joined hers for the bridge. She wished Iseult could see her now, standing on top of cardboard boxes with Caden’s arm around her as they sang karaoke together. It was a bit unbelievable even to Safi, who was the one experiencing it.

As they sang “We’re far from the shallow now” together for the final time, Caden tipped his head to the side so it rested against Safi’s. They stayed like that for a minute or so, standing a hell of a lot closer to each other than the “Under Pressure” singers had been, while people laughed and clapped. Lev was lost in a fit of giggles, but Safi didn’t get a chance to hear what she or Zander had to say about their forced performance, because no sooner had they stepped off the improvised stage than Caden had grabbed her hand and tugged her through the crowds to get to the empty hallway.

“You know, your singing voice isn’t terrible,” he said once he’d closed the door behind them. He leaned against the wall opposite her, arms folded and stance casual.

“What high praise,” Safi noted lightly even as her mind was spinning. He could have easily said this in a setting that wasn’t so private. “I might swoon.”

Another bright, easy smile. “Didn’t you already? I seem to remember you leaning against me for two and a half minutes.”

“And I seem to remember you doing a lot more for about two and a half months before that.”

The words were out before she could stop them or remember that it was just a joke, just a game. She should’ve gone home to Iseult the moment she had the chance—then maybe she could’ve avoided digging herself a deeper hole of embarrassment with every word that came out of her damn mouth.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Caden asked. In spite of the rather argumentative words, he didn’t even sound upset, just confused.

Well, Safi had already made this awkward, so it would be hard to make it worse. “I just don’t see how me playing along in front of a crowd is any stranger than your constant fake flirting and pet names.”

He blinked. “After my ridiculous display in there, you really think it’s fake?”

She froze. What? How on earth could she be expected to know that, or have guessed, when he made such a habit of the absurd coquetry?

“It started as a joke,” Caden continued. “And yeah, it kind of still is one, but only because you kept taking it that way. Eventually I guess I realized that I actually meant the things I was saying, but you kept rolling your eyes and laughing, and I figured it would be weirder to stop.”

“Than it would be to…what?” She couldn’t believe this. “Heaven forbid you started flirting with me and were actually serious doing it.”

He shook his head, chuckling softly. “Look, it was stupid, okay? But to be fair, you were the one who listened to me saying those things all the time and kept believing I only thought of you as a friend.”

“I’m pretty sure this isn’t how confessions are supposed to work. I don’t think you’re supposed to call me stupid while you tell me how much you like me.”

“Well, maybe if you weren’t so insufferable…” He trailed off. “You know, I don’t think you’re doing this right either. I think you’re supposed to say you like me too. Or, I guess, tell me to shut up and forget about it.”

A shocked laugh escaped Safi. “And _I’m_ the stupid one? Of course I like you.”

“If I’m not allowed to tease you while I’m confessing to you, you don’t get to tease me while you’re confessing.”

“Did you miss the part where I actually confessed to you, or do you just like complaining?”

Caden’s smile didn’t go away, but it became a bit more serious as he took a step closer to Safi. “No. I definitely didn’t miss that.”

His hand slid behind her neck, tilting up her face as he raised his eyebrows in a question. Her heart was racing—this was the last outcome she’d expected from tonight’s initial disaster of a party—but she inclined her head in a small nod.

He tasted like the bitterness from whatever alcohol he’d been drinking before they sang together, but the fact that Caden was kissing her in a hallway more than made up for it. Her hands came up beneath his shoulder blades as she pulled him closer.

When they broke apart, his face was flushed again. She noted again, though this time without confusion or shame, that it made him look like his face was illuminated.

“Wait,” Caden said. “Two and a half months, you said? That was August, Safi. I definitely remember flirting with you in at least June.”

“Well, it didn’t irritate me until August.” Not until she’d realized that it was to be an outlandish and ridiculous concept and that she was supposed to act like it.

He grinned. “Admit it. You just wanted it to sound nice as a comeback to my comment about the two and a half minutes.”

“Why do I even spend time with you?”

“Because who else would spend _four_ and a half months flirting with you before either person got their shit together and realized it might actually mean something?”

Safi couldn’t deny that. “True enough. I really need to get back to Iseult, but...we'll talk more about this tomorrow?"

"Of course," Caden said with a little laugh. "After all the work Lev and Zander did to get us together tonight, I think we might have to."

She kissed him again before going back to her car so she could get home. Before pulling out of the parking lot, she took out her phone to text Iseult.

_I'll be back soon!_

_Ooh, an exclamation point. What happened?_

_A lot_  
_Caden said he liked me_

_What a surprise._

_Well yeah I was shocked too_

_Saf. He’s been flirting with you for months._

_Yeah well he seemed to think that was proof too_

_Was it not?_

_It was_  
_He said he liked me, called me stupid, and then kissed me_

_He what?_

_Yeah! Tell you more when I get home!_

_Okay, be safe!_  
_If you need me I'll be threatening Caden on the phone._

Safi put her phone away and started up the car. No clarification was needed, because she knew Iseult was being deadly serious.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos/comments if you enjoyed it! :D


End file.
